They would ask me what actors I saw in the roles. I would tell them, and they’d say “Oh that’s interesting.” And that would be the end of it.
--Elmore Leonard, in 2000, on the extent of his input for Hollywood's adaptation of his novels

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Alyxandra Harvey's Drake Chronicles

Alyxandra Harvey lives in a stone Victorian house in Ontario, Canada with a few resident ghosts who are allowed to stay as long as they keep company manners. She loves medieval dresses, used to be able to recite all of "The Lady of Shalott" by Tennyson, and has been accused, more than once, of being born in the wrong century. She believes this to be mostly true except for the fact that she really likes running water, women’s rights, and ice cream.

Here she shares some ideas about director and cast for a cinematic adaptation of her series, The Drake Chronicles:

I don't picture actors and actresses in my head when I write a novel. The characters usually walk on stage fairly actualized and they get cranky if I try and interfere too much.

But once the book is done, or at least when it's well formed already, I do like to play around with casting the imaginary movie version. I even have links on my website for the Movie Game because I love hearing readers' choices. In fact, it's because of two readers who made their own movie trailer version of Hearts at Stake that I found my Lucy and my Nicholas.

I would be thrilled to pieces if Tim Burton wanted to direct and if the folks involved with the beautiful sets of the Harry Potter films could join in that would be grand. Especially if I could take some set pieces home afterwards!

So here goes, The Drake Chronicles as cast by me...with full disclosure that this isn't how they appear exactly in my head, they just happen to share a certain quality (look, voice, charisma...). This is especially true if the actor is now in his or her thirties but the character is 17!

“Compared to a novel, a film is like an economy pizza where there are no olives, no ham, no anchovies, no mushrooms, and all you’ve got is the dough.”
--Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin